Photoessay #1507 - Mount Shasta

Many stories suggest Northern California's Mount Shasta's spiritual and magical qualities. Dennis has always been drawn to Shasta. We paid better attention during our California trip earlier in the summer.

You can catch many beautiful vistas of Mt. Shasta going down the interstate. The mountain rising majestically seemingly on its own. We stopped at the town of Mount Shasta and visited the headwaters of the Sacramento River. I certainly felt the magic of that place, the pure spring bubbling up in a hidden park. People silently visiting and filling up buckets and jugs to the pure water.

My experience at the headwaters crystallized a topic that I had been mulling over during the trip and after -- My complex relationship with the complex state of California. It had come on when my doctor (from Kentucky, practicing in Washington) asked me for suggestions about where to visit in California. I didn't know what to say as there's so much.

I grew up in Sacramento at the confluence of the American and Sacramento Rivers. When you grow up in the valley, even the suburban scrubbed existence that I had, the rivers were always present and heavily influenced the landscape. The source of these rivers seem seminal to me. The levee for the American River ran right behind my high school (named Rio Americano). You could cut school and climb over the levee to the river....

I spent the first 27 years of my lifein California until we moved to Seattle in 1979. I had always been interested in the state's varied geography and colorful history. I loved Seattle's greenery but missed the lunatic fringe and confident mobility of my home state. I've always felt that I wanted to return to live but don't see that happening.

All is not paradise in the Golden State. But the itinerary I would choose probably would not match a typical tourist. I consider myself a northern Californian thought I've spent my time in the South. Dennis was called to the high desert (which I don't particularly enjoy) but you get it as a bonus for traveling down I5. We visited Chico where we used to live in the northern valley. Drove a major portion of Hwy 49 through the Gold Country which has a pull on me somehow. Our main destination was a place we've recently found, Kit Carson Resort at Silver Lake in the High Sierra. I look longingly at postcard here in front of me offering discounts for the autumn end of season at Kit Carson. Dennis and I both think about it and wonder, is there any way we can go the first week of October? It's still not out of the question. We also drove across the valley stopping at the Rail Museum into Marin County, another of my favorite places, stopping to visit Sue B. Then off up Hwy 101 visiting Dennis' aunt who has a small winery in the Alexander Valley. Loved that place, never been there before.

Back to Mount Shasta....because of the heavy snow pack, the road was only open to a certain spot even in late June. Skiing and hiking available at road's end. So we set out in the afternoon. Dennis thought that we had driven that road before but I did not remember it. The astonishing part for me was the tremendous feeling I had of calm, well-being and peace as we drove up the mountain road. Palpable, definite. That mountain called to me, I could feel it's positive power.

Shot taken from I-5 as we drove into California, still that high desert.